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The International 3 begins, prize pool over $2.8 million
Valve's The International 3 championships for DOTA 2 kicked off this week with a prize pool worth $2.8 million, the biggest for a single event in eSports history, Gamespot reported on Saturday. The event began on August 2 with a 1v1 Solo Championship and a Wild Card match. The roster for the Solo Championship and the upcoming All-Star match were chosen by fans using the Compendium, an interactive tool that rewards players with virtual item drops for predicting the outcome of matches. Each purchase of the $10 Compendium contributes $2.50 to the prize pool. Valve writer Ted Kosmatka tweeted that The International had 400,000 concurrent viewers during its first day. Riot's Season 2 Championship series for League of Legends peaked at 1.1 million concurrent viewers last year, making it the most-watched competitive gaming event of all time. The International's main event begins on August 7 and will conclude on August 11.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Will Korea dominate League of Legends, too?
When I first started following the League of Legends pro scene, I was introduced to top teams like Team Solo Mid and SK Gaming. As I watched matches and player interviews, the first thing that came to my mind was this: If Korea fielded a LoL pro team, it would be incredibly scary. When Riot Games added support for Korean League of Legends and OnGameNet began running regular tournaments, I had to check it out. Sure enough, big pro-gaming teams like StarTale and MiG started fielding pro League teams, and most of the things I suspected were true. Korean teams have amazing coordination and incredible mechanics compared to their western counterparts. This was put to the test last weekend during Major League Gaming's LoL Summer Arena, where Korean qualifying team Azubu Blaze utterly destroyed the other teams, losing only once to Curse Gaming. Most of the matches weren't even close. What's the secret to Azubu Blaze's dominance? Can it be reproduced in the West, or is League of Legends going to end up like StarCraft -- dominated by the Korean scene?
